McConaughey Has Better Odds as Democrat
in Gov Bid with Reagan and Arnold as Models

Capitol Inside
April 19, 2021

Academy Award-winning actor Matthew McConaughey's only realistic path in a potential bout with Governor Greg Abbott in 2022 would be as the Democratic nominee based on the findings of a new poll that found the actor leading the incumbent by a dozen points in a hypothetical general election bout.

McConaughey scored a thumbs up from 45 percent of the Texas voters in a potential showdown with Abbott in the survey that the Dallas Morning News and the University of Texas at Tyler published on Sunday. Abbott received support from a meager 33 percent of 1,126 registered voters in the poll that was conducted over seven days ending April 13.

The newspaper poll didn't change Abbott's status as a significant betting favorite at the outset of his bid for a third term as the state's top leader. But the poll shows that McConaughey could have a chance to be the next governor if he ended months of speculation and teasing with a lunar leap from Hollywood to major league politics for a gubernatorial quest in 2022.

A Longview native who's the University of Texas' most high-profile booster and alumni, McConaughey would have a couple of major role models if he cast himself as a candidate for governor next year. Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger were both elected as governor in California initially in 1966 and 2003 respectively after more than two decades of acting in film and television.

Reagan served eight years as the Golden State governor before giving the job up for his first presidential campaign in 1976. Reagan lost to incumbent Gerald Ford in the GOP primary election before bouncing back four years later to unseat Democrat Jimmy Carter in the 1980 White House race. Reagan beat Texan George H.W. Bush in the primary election before selecting him as his running mate. Reagan and Bush were re-elected in 1984.

Schwarzenegger had been a much bigger star than Reagan by the time he won the California governor's position in a recall election in 2003 en route to a seven-year stint. The actor who's universally referred to as Arnold hadn't been involved in politics until he launched a last-minute bid for the governorship several months before his election.

Reagan had been a B-list actor who'd been a Democrat and union leader when he was elected in 1947 as the president of the Screen Actors Guild. Reagan converted to the GOP after a transition from liberal to conservative in the wake of eight years as the fictional host on the General Electric Theater television series.

McConaughey can relate more to Schwarzenegger, however, as a movie star who's never been associated with the Republicans or Democrats and has given no hints of whether he'd run for governor as a candidate for one of the major parties or an an independent.

McConaughey, however, is a much more accomplished actor in terms of accolades than either Schwarzenegger or Reagan. The East Texas native who made his debut on the big screen in Dazed and Confused won the Academy Award for best actor in 2014 for his part in the film Dallas Buyers Club. McConaughey also won a Golden Globe for that role before he was nominated for an Emmy a year later for his performance in the television miniseries True Detective the following year.

Reagan in contrast was never nominated for an Academy Award, Emmy or any other major acting award. Reagan did win the Worst Career Achievement award in the Golden Raspberry or Razzie - in 1982. McConaughey was nominated for a Razzie himself last year for the film Serenity. Schwarzenegger has been nominated for a record nine Razzies that go to the worst performances and movies each year.

Arnold is competing this year for the Razzie for worst supporting actor with another fellow Republican - Donald Trump's election challenge lawyer Rudy Giuliani. But Giuliani could be a slam dunk for a Razzie in 2021 for his unwitting role playing himself in the film Borat Subsequent Moviefilm.

McConaughey - like Schwarzenegger - has portrayed himself as a moderate who'd hope to have a centrist appeal in a political campaign. McConaughey hasn't hinted whether he would run as a Democrat or Republican if he took aim at the Governor's office.

But the poll that the DMN and UT-Tyler conducted indicates that McConaughey would have a potentially insurmountable obstacle in Abbott if he filed to run in the GOP primary election less than 11 months from now. Abbott led McConaughey 56 percent to 30 percent in a potential primary pairing.

But 66 percent of the Democrats in the survey said they'd vote for McConaughey in a battle with Abbott in response to a question that included no other potential candidates on either side of the aisle. A key question that the pollsters didn't pose in the April survey would be how McConaughey could expect to fare in a Democratic primary fight with potential foes like Beto O'Rourke or Julian Castro - the two early frontrunners for the nomination at this point.